Last Night's Tipple

Canadian Whisky (whisky spelled without the "e", as it is for Scotch) is almost always blended. In this context, it means that "flavoring" straight whiskies, which are distilled off at less than 160 proof and consequently have lots of the congeners that give spirits their flavors, have been blended with other, lighter whiskies that have been distilled to a high proof, high enough that the spirits are nearly neutral. (As an aside, both vodka and gin are made from grain neutral spirits, which means that the mash used to make the spirit is grain-based but that it is distilled to such a high proof -- 190 proof or thereabouts -- that it retains none of the character of the mash. The light whiskies used in Canadian blending aren't quite neutral, but they're close.) The result is a whisky that is light in body and subtle in flavor.

Wiser's DeLuxe 10 year old Canadian Whisky is distilled by the Hiram Walker & Sons distillery in Ontario. Hiram Walker's flagship brand is Canadian Club. Wiser's is more of specialty brand, but it still is very much a Canadian Whisky: light in body, subtle in flavor. So subtle, in fact, that it doesn't taste like much of anything. There are just some pleasant hints of vanilla on the nose and some pleasant hints of walnuts on the palate. There just wasn't a whole lot of anything in this whisky. I can't say that it was bad, but I think that I prefer something more robustly-flavored.